청소년 게임 이용 행동 발달 궤적의 시계열 클러스터링 유형화와 자기결정이론 기반 심리 요인 분석

초록

As gaming has become a normalized part of adolescents’ daily lives, there is a growing need for empirical analyses of gaming overindulgence. However, existing research has been limited to cross-sectional analyses, failing to capture developmental trajectories and often dichotomizing gaming behaviors into binary categories. This study analyzed five-year longitudinal panel data (N=496) using time-series clustering to identify three distinct developmental trajectories: stable healthy use (Healthy-Adaptive), sustained overindulgence (Chronic-Persistent), and alternating between healthy and at-risk states (Transitional). Analysis based on self-determination theory showed that the Chronic-Persistent cluster displayed high academic competence and social relatedness despite sustained overindulgence. This paradoxical profile can be understood in terms of domain-specific imbalance, gaming-centered peer culture, and controlled motivational structures. Each cluster corresponded to the maintenance, precontemplation, and contemplation stages of the transtheoretical model, respectively, informing differentiated intervention strategies. This study demonstrates that gaming overindulgence is not a static pathological condition but a dynamic developmental phenomenon, with natural recovery patterns observed in some adolescents, problematizing excessive pathologization. These findings provide a theoretical and practical basis for developmentally informed approaches to adolescent gaming behaviors.

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